Brigitte Bardot

With a coquettish allure like no other actress of her time, Brigitte Bardot became a member of a rare club - that of foreign-language stars who attain international success on the silver screen. The o...
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Love her or hate her, Blake Lively (of Gossip Girl and the upcoming Green Lantern) is making an effort to shore up her indie credentials with a co-starring role in director Derick Martini's Hick, alongside British thesp Eddie Redmayne (The Yellow Handkerchief) and Chloe Moretz (Kick-Ass).
Based on the shocking coming-of-age novel by Andrea Portes -- who is also penning the film's screenplay -- Hick centers on 13-year-old Luli (Moretz), a girl from Nebraska who "gets more than she bargained for" when she takes off alone for Las Vegas. Lively will play a grifter who mentors the young runaway, and Redmayne will play a loner who shares a past with Lively and has his own plans for Luli.
If you're interested in more story details (and SPOILERS) for the upcoming indie from the director of the 2008 award-winning Lymelife (2008), read on for the full plot synopsis from Amazon:
Portes's chilling debut tracks a 13-year-old Nebraska girl's hard-going life on the road. Young Luli knows losers—her "aging Brigitte Bardot" mother, Tammy, and her father, Nick, go at each other every night at the Alibi, the watering hole in hometown Palmyra, Neb. Tammy runs away one morning, and Nick soon follows, leaving Luli alone at home with the Smith and Wesson .45 her Uncle Nipper gave her. Pistol in tow, she hitches rides heading west to Vegas. A crooked man (literally; he "looks like an italic," says smart-alecky Luli) named Eddie picks her up briefly before throwing her out of the car. Next comes cocaine-snorting grifter Glenda, who enlists Luli as an accessory to a robbery that goes awry. Glenda takes Luli under her wing. The two cross paths again with Eddie, who rapes Luli and ties her up in a secluded motel. Glenda comes to her rescue, but the confrontation with Eddie ends badly. Luli's flippant narration makes for a love-it or hate-it read.
Source: Variety

The French film legend, 76, has become a champion of animal issues over the last few years, and spent 2010 bidding to end bullfighting in Spain, curb seal hunting in Canada and halt the killing of pilot whales in Denmark.
She has now turned her attention to the traditional ritual slaughter of animals in the Jewish and Islamic faiths - and has aligned The Brigitte Bardot Foundation with six other similar campaign groups in France to kickstart 2011 with a nationwide poster campaign featuring a gruesome image of a cow's head.
Bardot tells AFP, "I can no longer accept that in order to please a god animals have their throats slit like in the Middle Ages without being stunned beforehand, when we have modern methods to prevent animals suffering."
The activists aim to place over 2,000 posters across France in the coming weeks. The country is home to an estimated five to six million Muslims and boasts Europe's biggest Jewish community, numbering 700,000 people.

The actress/model didn't hesitate when animal rights group PETA asked her to help them fund a relocation programme for cats and dogs abandoned by desperate owners who had lost their livelihoods following the Gulf Coast oil spill earlier this year (10).
As well as covering the transportation fees and adoption costs for 42 strays, Anderson flew to the region and visited shelters.
She left with two dogs, Gina Lollobrigida and Bardot - named after animal rights legend Brigitte Bardot.
Inspired by Anderson's example, PETA staff in Virginia agreed to take in the remaining 40 pets.

The And God Created Woman star has been asked by the Ecology Alliance party to run for France's top job in the 2012 elections.
The party champions animal rights and campaigns against the ritual slaughter of livestock by Muslims for halal meat, and both policies agree with Bardot's political standing.
And the former actress admits she is considering hitting the campaign trail after she was treated like an "imbecile" by current leader Nicolas Sarkozy.
She says, "Someone's voice is needed to defend animals as neither the Right nor the Left give a damn!. Sarkozy took me for an imbecile by making promises he didn't keep."
The Ecology Alliance party's chairman Antoine Waechter adds, "We think she is the best person to represent us for the presidency. If she accepts, a final decision will be taken next year."
Bardot has long been outspoken about her controversial views on animal rights, Muslims and immigrants in France, receiving several fines for racist remarks.

The Hangover funnyman is pictured showing off his curves in the women's swimsuit for the new issue of Vanity Fair magazine, in a feature titled The Zach Galifianakis Swimsuit Calendar.
Galifianakis is seen reclining on a beach in a Brigitte Bardot-style pose with the waves lapping behind him.

The French film icon has become a champion of animal issues over the last few years, recently campaigning to end bullfighting in Spain and curb seal hunting in Canada.
Now her attention has turned to the killing of pilot whales in the Danish-held Faroe Islands - she is outraged over the annual cull of the marine creatures which sees them driven to shore and killed with knives.
She has now written to Denmark's Queen Margrethe II, urging the royal to step in and end the slaughter.
Bardot writes, "This macabre spectacle is a shame for Denmark and the Faroe Islands. This is not a hunt but a mass slaughter. (It's an) outmoded tradition that has no acceptable justification in today's world."

The And God Created Women star rose to fame in the 1950s and '60s before retiring from acting in the '70s and devoting her life to campaign for animal rights.
Newman is reportedly working on a Bardot movie with King in the lead role, but the veteran star claims she has not been told about the biopic and has warned she would never authorise such a film because "no one" can portray her accurately on screen.
The 75 year old says, "A film about my life? But I'm not dead! They wouldn't dare do it without talking to me. If they do sparks will fly.
"I don't agree to a film about me without me having been warned and without me agreeing on who will play my part... There is no one who can do it. They have their own personality, but they don't have mine...
"I have heard nothing about it and there is no question of doing anything about me without my agreement."

The pair, both dedicated champions of animal rights, have long spoken out against the barbaric sport, which sees a matador kill a bull in front of hordes of spectators.
The British comedian backed the proposal by Catalonia's government to vote on whether the sport should be banned - and he is "delighted" with their decision on Wednesday (28Jul10) to abolish the historical spectacle.
In a statement, Gervais says, "I am absolutely delighted with this result. However, we mustn't get complacent. There are still many outdated practices around the world that are simply cruel."
And Anderson took to her Twitter.com page to make fans aware of the vote, writing, "Some historic news to report: Catalonia has just today banned bullfighting!"
Other celebrities who joined the call for the ban include Brigitte Bardot and Latino variety star Charo, who is currently pushing for a similar move in Mexico.
Catalonia, which includes tourist hot spot Barcelona, is the second region to abolish bullfighting after the Spanish-owned Canary Islands. Bullfighting is still popular in Madrid and the south of the country.

The former Hollywood siren-turned-animal rights activist was furious to hear about the cruel promotional stunt, in which the creature was sent parasailing over a bay in southern Russia earlier this month (Jul10).
Bardot is demanding officials bring in new animal cruelty laws to punish Vasily Gorobets, the man allegedly behind the donkey campaign.
In an open letter to Russian prosecutor Yury Chaika, Bardot writes, "I ask you to react with the strictest possible legal measures to a horrendous act of cruelty towards a donkey in Golubitskaya.
"The donkey was strapped to a parachute and for more than half an hour was sailing in the air, screaming from horror and causing shock amongst children and adults on the beach.
"Finally the poor animal landed, also in a horrific manner, and by then being hardly alive. I want you to act so that not only people responsible for this horrendous case are punished, but so that situation never happens again."
Police officers have said they won't look into the case because there have been no complaints.

The former screen siren has returned to the wealthy resort - the place she helped popularise in the 1950s with her performance in And God Created Woman - after reportedly splitting from her fourth husband, French politician Bernard d'Ormale.
The pair has been married since 1992, and for the last 15 years they lived just outside Paris - but insiders tell New York Post gossip column Page Six that Bardot's return to St. Tropez is due to the breakdown of her marriage.
A source tells the publication, "Word is they have separated and that's why she moved back to St. Tropez."

Title

Co-starred with second husband Jacques Charrier in "Babette Goes to War"

Studied at Paris' Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse

Returned to the screen with a starring role in Jean-Luc Godard's acclaimed "Le mépris" ("Contempt")

Cast as Andraste in the Warner Bros. epic "Helen of Troy"

Film acting debut in "Le trou normand/Crazy For Love"

Opened boutique in Saint-Tropez, La Madrague, with profits going to animal causes

Retired from film to devote her life to animal rights' causes

Starred in "...And God Created Woman"; film directed by husband Roger Vadim

Founded Brigitte Bardot Foundation (which folded but was relaunched in 1986)

Released the pop album Inside Brigitte Bardot

Auctioned jewels and mementos from her film career to create animal protection foundation

Posed for ELLE magazine at age 15

Made U.S. film debut in "Act of Love" opposite Kirk Douglas

Summary

With a coquettish allure like no other actress of her time, Brigitte Bardot became a member of a rare club - that of foreign-language stars who attain international success on the silver screen. The original sex kitten - a term actually coined for the French actress - Bardot's sultry appeal made her a star in Europe in the 1950s. With the international success of "Et Dieu Crea la Femme" ("And God Created Woman") (1956), Bardot became an international sex symbol. Credited with popularizing the bikini, Bardot's uninhibited sexuality was unlike any American star of her era, save perhaps Marilyn Monroe. Bardot brought more to the film world than just sex appeal, however; her popularity proved to be a key factor in establishing a market for foreign films in English-speaking countries. Bardot would go on to age gracefully in her native land and become one of the most outspoken advocates of animal rights, proving she was always much more than a beautiful face and muse of inspiration for everyone from musicians to filmmakers to fashion designers. In fact, decades later, German supermodel Claudia Schiffer owed her entire career to Bardot, as she became the face of Guess, Inc. in the early 1990s, due simply to her amazing resemblance to the actress - proving the Bardot look of wild, cascading blonde hair and pouty lips would never go out of style.

Born 1960; father, Jacques Charrier; Brought up by in-laws; married 1984

Gunter Sachs

Husband

Self-styled international playboy; Married July 16, 1966; Divorced Oct. 1, 1969; Sachs committed suicide in May 2011 after concluding that he was suffering from an incurable degenerative disease affecting his memory and ability to communicate

Advisor to right-wing extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen; Married on Aug. 16, 1992 in Norway; Bardot was 51 at the time; Sparked rumors they split after she moved back to St. Tropez, France from Paris

Education

Name

Notes

Bardot was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1985.

"She has fewer and fewer friends and doesn't like the human race. The animals have become the only important thing in her life. I think she'll grow old with them...She was always allergic to fame, power, and everything that connoted success. The innocence and honesty of animals reassured her." – Roger Vadim on Bardot, quoted in Fame, August 1990

"I felt like a stranger in my parents' house. I was shy and had dreadful complexes as a child. I always thought I was ugly, and at first the critics agreed with me. They said I looked like a common maid; they said I was 'ordinary,' which is much worse than vulgar." – Bardot in Fame, August 1990

"I really wanted to die at certain periods in my life. Death was like love, a romantic escape. I took pills because I didn't want to throw myself off my balcony and know people would photograph me lying dead below." – Bardot in Fame, August 1990

Bardot was successfully sued by her son Nicholas and his father Jacques Charrier over descriptions she included in her memoirs. She referred to her son as a "tumor" and to Charrier as "vulgar macho." A French court ordered Bardot to pay $26,000 to Charrier and $17,000 to her son.

In 1993, Bardot wrote to Pope John Paul II offering to send money over to Africa to care for starving animals. She was incensed when the Pope responded that she should send money over to take care of people and that they would tend to the animals. Bardot also wrote Russian President Boris Yeltsin over what she called the massacre of seal pups in Northern Russia.

In June 2000 a French court convicted Bardot of inciting "discrimination, hatred or racial violence" after making statements regarding a Muslim festival during which sheep were slaughtered. Bardot, a strident animal rights activist, was also fined $3000 for stating "my country, France, my homeland, my land is again invaded by an overpopulation of foreigners, especially Muslims" to the authors of the book Pluto's Square.

"I think that I arrived and left at the right time. My wild and free side unsettled some, and unwedged others." – Bardot on what made her an icon of French cinema, to CNN.com, May 18, 2007